


discover

by fanfarepizza



Category: Promare (2019)
Genre: Anyways, and i'll write thyma lio friendship since everyone is a coward and doesn't do it, first fic upload, mad burnish friendship :), no coherent story/plot fic, smh, this fic is pure scientific and psychological speculation
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-03-24
Updated: 2020-04-06
Packaged: 2021-03-01 02:55:15
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 3
Words: 2,819
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23298142
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/fanfarepizza/pseuds/fanfarepizza
Summary: What speaks in the language of light and heat in a human's mind? What do Burnish dream of? An alien lifeform is not easily comprehended by humans. This fic is snippets of random short stories detailing on the Promare's nature, and what could have been.
Comments: 11
Kudos: 17





	1. light

If you had eyes to open to see, that light would sear through your eyes and through your skull. The heat alone was that of the sun, but also so hot that it was like the burn of the cold abyss of space. But in this dimension, there is no sight and there is no heat. 

However, there was sound, and the sound was of the garbled voices, a singing and a calling back and forth in echoes countless times over and over again. A simple language that vibrated through the air, that made the air tremble intensely, making the molecules shift and bend, producing their form. The beginning of the universe had sang in a similar way, and the song continued in it's own way with a repeated melody back and around the macrocosmos. It was born from the source of life. It knew not death. It was life.

It called to search. To connect. A longing for more, for another. Something Other than One's self.

One's self and one's own separate selves can be tiring. A repeated harmony becomes a cycle, and the cycle changes if in contact with a pull from another. One knew the cycle, one lived with it for years. One grew tire of it. But recently, the calls of an Other drifted closer and closer to the space, as One traveled through time and space, alone. Many voices and many thoughts at once silenced themselves and strained to listen. It wasn't comprehensible. Voices were not one but many different pitches, different wavelengths. But the Other was there.

One searches desperately for the Other. The Other is still calling. 

The song moved closer and closer. It was natural to want to connect. Sentience brings desire for social knowledge and understanding.

In the Milky Way, there is a planet named Earth. The only recorded planet in this galaxy able to sustain life, according to it's inhabitants. It has one Moon and it orbited one Sun. The inhabitants of this planet consisted of flora, mammals, animals of many shapes and size. 

It was noon on one side, midnight on the other. Humans functioned in their fixed perspective of time. If that balance was tipped, societies would collapse. Science was marching forward and man marched behind it, but not without conflict. Tension between humans was natural, because of different histories and social constructs. They called it 'perception' or 'human nature', and there was still little that was known from them. Mankind sung it's own song, but it was the voices of million different minds, minds that did not think in one direction, but in many. There was a calling for closure. 

On May 2019, in what was classified later by scientists (and then kept under deep secret), an dimensional rift opened in the center of the Earth's core. This rift brought in entities that immediately synchronized with the inner machinations of some human beings. This spontaneous merge resembled that of a sudden wildfire.

Because on Earth's dimension, there is sight and there is heat and there is pain and there is love and there are people, and on that day, there were the voices of hundreds, thousands, millions, a collective cry rose. Mankind's song turned into a scream on that day, hearts writhing with the bellowing heat that swarmed from within them and around them, a tidal wave of energy shrieking through the ground, from their minds and their souls. The long desperation of millions of years was being released. 

One had finally found the Other.


	2. sleep

Lio Fotia dreamed. 

He dreamed of the dancing patterns, unfolding and folding into themselves in front of him, and into him, as if his body was made of transparent fibers. He breathed an air that did not exist and spoke a language that could not be heard, only seen.

Lio Fotia then woke up and walked through a day in quiet resolve. He would talk to other Burnish, eat and converse with his generals, Gueira and Meis, and then quietly think. He would sit outside with Thyma and converse with her too. Mad Burnish would ride their bikes, find food, head back to the settlement. Lio would fall asleep last out of all of Mad Burnish, alone. 

Lio Fotia then, another night, would dream. He saw himself veering on the state of pyrolysis and carbonization. Then he would watch himself become strands of lines, like he was looking into a mirror.

A Burnish's dreams, collectively, were always full of strange light and woven memories. The children would try to explain to Lio of what they saw, most of them attempting to draw small diagrams of strange forms (forms that were not easily drawn in a two dimensions, a Mad Burnish veteran once noted in a grim voice). Meis had attempted to help one little girl one time, who said she had dreamed of “a light that spoke with straight lines”, but he too was at a loss after a certain point, leaving the three of them staring down at a dirt scribble that would never be completed. The little girl silently looked up at Lio, as if he had the answers. He did not. 

Lio wished with all his heart that he did. Yet he did not. He did not understand most of any of this, but it did not err his resolve in the slightest. 

The dreams never frightened them, they were not nightmares. They would have nightmares, but the dreams with “the speaking light” did not bode terror. The children loved to talk about them, and played around with their fire, trying to mimic the voices in an earnest glee. They would giggle and shout. The elder Burnish simply did not think on them much anymore, at least, not openly. Some of them had given up on analyzing them, and accepted it as another Burnish attribute.

“It's like being awake in another world.” Meis tentatively muttered. Gueira made a huffing noise and shuffled his feet in response. Thyma sat with her legs crossed in a tense silence. Lio stared at the ground in silent thought.

“Another world?” Guiera echoed darkly. He was not in the best moods lately.

“Perhaps.... perhaps that's what it could be?” Thyma spoke up after a silence. “Perhaps we are...seeing visions of another place. It wouldn't be far-fetched considering we already have pyrokinesis.”

Another pause.

Lio at this point wondered sometimes if he was dreaming still when he woke up. If maybe, in a fit of terror, that the human Earth he was on, became a dream, and that the voices that spoke in him were awakening them all to a different consciousness. He had suggested this to Thyma once, and she turned to stare at him with worry. 

“Lio, I'm sure it isn't that...” She took one of his hands and squeezed it tightly. Her smile was deeply gentle, for Thyma's face was one of the kindest Lio had ever met in his life. “Everything here is real, Lio!”

He smiled back at Thyma, placing his other hand over hers. He didn't respond, but his silence was a confirmation of what was unspoken.

Lio Fotia would continue to dream. One day, he would awaken.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> this'll be only 5 chapters, yes, unless i suddenly get more ideas for a coherent story, but the next three chapters will focus on lio and thyma primarily (and their perspective of the promare), and how i think they'd be friends if they got to BE friends! (i then stand up and strangle studio trigger with my bare hands)


	3. voice

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Suddenly, everything was outlined with a bright red and white edge, warbling with a saturated taste of red hot ice.

The Other. A voice spoke in a child's pitch, straining to replicate a human's linguistic sound. Thyma listened to it's song quietly now, seated on a small stool that was a little crooked. The sun was just beginning to rise outside, and she had woken up early to keep to her own thoughts, after having a small share of breakfast with two other Burnish (who also awoke earlier than most, just like her).

The fire...it was singing happily to her, it seemed. She remembered one of her high school friends, who was determined to study music theory. Major scales and minor scales, harmonic and melodic. Flats, sharps, natural notes. She was able to play the piano, the oboe, but also inclined toward synthesized music machines, which were the Promepolis industry standard. To make money, you needed to incline to mainstream trends in that city.

Her friend said that humans could perceive any sound as either happy or sad, depending on the volume, pitch, and timbre. “Sound is life!” she remembered her laughing as the two of them walked down a long stairway in between crowds of students. 

Thyma had lost touch with her after high school, as how it is unfortunately, when life becomes busy. Heavy was her heart at the slow parting of friends, but deeper down, a happiness that she had learned and laughed with her. The Burnish woman smiled to herself, leaning back with her hands clasped together on her lap. 

Imitating our happiness, to commune? It understands our sound? Thyma wondered if her old friend would love to listen to the fire-

“Thymaaa!!!!”

The shout of a little girl pulled her out of her thoughts, making her look up. Some of the children were awake, and they were restless once they awoke at this hour.

“Thyma! Thyma, come play!” More Burnish children clamored . Cheery and playful, yet wildly urgent. One of the kids held a small ball in his hands, grinning with a smile that was missing a few teeth. 

She stood up with a giggle, dusting herself. “Alright!” She clapped her hands together, walking down to stand in the middle of the children's little gathering. “What are we playing?”

“Catch! We want to play catch! Come on!” “Tag!” “Hide-and-go-seek!” “No, we played that yesterday!” “It's not fair!” “I want to play catch!” “No!” 

“Kids, it's okay!” Thyma bent down, waving her hands to gain the group's attention. The children stopped arguing and looked to her with wide adoring eyes. The Burnish children loved Thyma very much, and though they didn't know how to say it, they saw her as a big sister. 

“How about I choose the game today? I think...” She put a finger to her lips with a 'hmm' noise, pretending to think extremely hard. “I think! We should play catch! Since we have a ball right there.” Thyma gestured to the small ball one of the little boys was holding, and he grinned excitedly. 

“Yeah!!” “Let's play catch!” “Yay!”

There were no solid rules, everyone simply ran around and threw the little ball back forth and around. The kids loved to call out the number of times the ball was caught, and each time the ball fell to the ground, they would reset the count. Little sparks of flame would bounce the ball up and down, accompanied by shrieks of joy from the little ones. The fire itself seemed to laugh too, the childish giggles blending in with the group perfectly.

Some other Mad Burnish members were awake now too, and others from watch outside entered the settlement, their tired frowns lighting up at the sight of the happy Burnish children chasing the ball with their fire dancing along them. Thyma gave them a little wave as she ran by behind the kids, with a sheepish grin. Some of them waved back, one of the taller members letting out a little laugh. She ran on, flushing half from embarrassment, and half from running so much. One day she'd get to know them all better, she hoped! 

At one point, one of the kids threw the ball far too hard, and it sailed up, up, and over anyone's head, and ahead. Bouncing and rolling, the little ball pounced through the dirt, out of sight. The children in the lead yelled in louder excitement, their bodies bursting with bouts of flame. The ball was gone! Where did it go?

Thyma and the children had come to a halt, gasping and panting, searching for it. The boy who was the owner of the ball was most nervous, and he was almost in tears at the thought that he might have lost it. Seeing his bowed head in shame, Thyma quickly walked over to him and offered him a hug, which he accepted. Just about when some of the kids had completely lost hope and given up the ball for lost, now resigning to walk back to Thyma, a small cough and 'ahem' piped up from one of the turned corners.

Lio Fotia! The children saw him standing by a tent, holding the dusty ball in his gloved hands. Their eyes shone at the sight of him. Seeing his ball was in fact, not completely lost, the boy ran forward and stared expectantly up at the leader of Mad Burnish, along with the rest. Thyma walked behind, breathing a sigh of relief that the ball was found.

“Boss, that's my ball!!” More kids ran up. “Boss!” “It's Boss!!” “Boss, come play with Thyma too!”

When he first was annotated leader, Gueira and Meis took into calling him 'boss' all the time around Mad Burnish, rather than Lio's name. The rest of Mad Burnish caved to this habit fast. Lio insisted initially that there was no need for him to be called 'boss', but by now accepted it somewhat begrudgingly. Copying the group's habit, Burnish children in the settlement loved to call Lio 'boss'. It was also a very silly word in general, to the children. 

Lio smiled gently, raising an eyebrow at Thyma. “Are they too much for you? You seem a little tired.”

Thyma snorted a bit in laughter. “I ran a little too hard back there, but then again, all of us did.”

“Have you kids been wringing poor Thyma about again? Why not go bother Gueira and Meis sometime, they need some energy shaken out of them all silly too.” The leader of Mad Burnish chided, but in a soft, joking tone, the voice he only used when talking to children. Some of the girls pouted, and one of the boys kicked a stone with his foot absentmindedly.

“Lio...” Thyma herself never called him 'boss', even though some of the other rescued Burnish from Promepolis tended to. She didn't see why she would, but she understood why others did. He was unlike anyone she had ever met before in her life, in his distant behavior and steadfast courage. Thyma loathed to dwell on it, but she worried a lot for him, even though she did not know him as well as she wished to. 

Lio Fotia was a flickering flame in the dust of a gale. At any moment, he could vanish completely.

_Everything here is real, Lio! ___

____

____

Thyma swallowed, clenching her teeth. Lio caught her gaze, and his teasing 'strict' expression became far softer, but with a twinge of sharp concern. That second felt like a year to Thyma, and a terrifying apparition unveiled itself to her, a prisma of lines and shapes shrieked suddenly, and were as quickly silenced.

A language that could not be heard, only seen.

“Do you have time to come play catch with us, Lio?” Thyma found herself speaking suddenly, but her voice sounded so distant now. 

The other Burnish's eyes flickered a bit, and his mouth opened a slight bit. Before he could speak, a collective shudder roared through their minds, and the children gasped in surprise. Nearby Burnish, walking about and leaning on walls to talk among themselves became silent and looked up. Suddenly, everything was outlined with a bright red and white edge, warbling with a saturated taste of red hot ice. The prisma of lines had returned.

Thyma watched in terrified silence as Lio's face changed, a warped distortion as his eyes seemed to open impossibly wide with a deafening stare. The closest children held onto her tightly, some of them asking what was happening and why everything was so loud and why it was so bright. Even the little Burnish boy dropped his little ball, his mouth agape as well as he watched the air contort. 

She wanted to call out to them, to comfort the children, but somehow she felt that they weren't afraid. 

Someone was speaking.

And then it stopped. Thyma saw a snap, a crinkle, and finally it was done. She blinked and shook her head to look back at Lio, who was smiling in a melancholy grimace. Nothing was different. The light was gone. 

“Of course. I can spare a few minutes for the kids, Thyma.”

He knelt down to pick up the little ball and returned it to the one boy, who laughed and hugged Lio's leg. Lio laughed as well, but more quietly, in a chuckle as he ruffled the boy's hair. Thyma didn't respond, and she could swear she could feel her heart squeezing into a crumpled lump. They returned to their fun play, and the whole day passed without a word out of place or in mention of that occurrence. It was like nothing happened. 

However, Thyma did not sleep that night. She sat with her knees to her face in silence under the moonlight. 

Her fire was almost silent that night.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> i always wanted to write abt burnish kids.... this fic gave me an excuse to. i love kids! thyma big sister moments!


End file.
